One of the worlds best-known consumer e-commerce Web sites, eBay Inc., last week launched a business-to-business site.
The San Jose, Calif., company introduced its eBay Business marketplace, which gathers all its business-related listings at one address.
eBay is no stranger to B2B e-commerce. Before the launch, vendors listed more than 500,000 business items for sale every week on eBays consumer site, with business buyers representing more than $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales, officials said. The new B2B site will aggregate all merchandise, offering products and services for vertical-industry marketplaces, office technology, wholesale lots and marketplace services.
Under the Business Technology banner, users will find PCs, laptops, networking and telecommunications equipment, wireless phones, software, printers, PDAs, office furniture, equipment, and supplies. Items for sale below the Wholesale Lots heading fall under a broad range of categories, including computers, electronics, media, apparel, toys and sporting goods.
Services available on the B2B site include offerings that make it easier for businesses to buy and sell items, eBay officials said. Services include escrow, shipping, transaction insurance, volume selling tools and payer services such as those offered by PayPal Corp.
Eric Bochner, who is starting a chocolate, candy and pastry wholesale business, Bochner Confections Inc., has equipment from eBays consumer site. Bochner welcomes the new B2B site, especially the logistics services.
“On eBay, you get to interact with the actual seller of goods, whereas with other [sites,] its not really possible. With a lot of the others, its more of an anonymous bid,” said Bochner, in Chicago.